(Brief Biography)

Richard Nixon claimed that his early life was hard, by saying, "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it." Sadly, two of his brothers died while he was young. He was a successful student-athlete in high school and was offered a scholarship to Harvard. His family was unable to afford the expenses of his travel and housing to Harvard, across the country, so instead he attended Whittier College in California, where he studied law. Not satisfied with a career as a small-town lawyer, Richard Nixon and his wife Pat moved to Washington, D.C. in 1942, where he took a job with President Roosevelt's administration. He didn’t like the kind of work he was doing there, so he joined the Navy during WWII, but saw no combat.

Nixon next served in the U.S. House of Representatives, where, from 1948 to 1950, he was a member of the “House Un-American Activities Committee” (HUAC). This committee was formed during part of the “Cold War” period in the U.S. called “McCarthyism”, where U.S. House Members named, investigated, and interrogated dozens of well-known U.S. Citizens, accusing them of being Communists, and/or Russian Sympathizers. Targeted people included artists, actors, activists, Democratic politicians, writers, and other people well-known in American Society. These hearings were so ‘sensationalized’, that many hours of the proceedings were televised live to the American Public.

Nixon took a leading role in the investigation of a man named Alger Hiss, a former State Department official with a previously outstanding reputation. While many believed Hiss, Nixon challenged Hiss in dramatic testimony (statements and arguments), saying Hiss knew his accuser, Whittaker Chambers. Nixon was able to get Hiss to admit that he had known Chambers, but under a different name. Hiss was charged with perjury (lying under oath), and sentenced to five years in prison. Nixon's hostile questioning of Hiss established Nixon’s reputation as an ‘anti-Communist’. Many viewers of the House Hearings thought Nixon’s questions and tactics were deceptive (unfair treatment or untrue), but during this hysterical time of fear-mongering throughout the country, others thought Nixon was justified in the way he questioned Hiss.

In 1950, Nixon successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in California against Democrat Helen Douglas. She had been an outspoken opponent of the anti-Communist scare and the actions of HUAC, on which Nixon had served. Nixon's campaign staff passed out flyers on pink paper unfairly distorting (lying about) Douglas's voting record as left-wing (supposed Communist or “a red”). A newspaper story tagged Nixon with the nickname "Tricky Dick," a derogatory (insulting) nickname that would remain with him for the rest of this life. (“Tricky” meant “fooling others”, and "Dick” is an old-fashioned nickname for the name “Richard”.)

In 1952, Nixon was selected to run as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Vice Presidential Candidate. In September of that year, approaching Election Day on November 4th, he found himself under mounting Democratic and media pressure regarding a ‘slush-fund’ that his campaign supporters had given him - to spend any way he pleased (which is illegal). Nixon delivered a nationally televised speech where he confirmed the existence of the fund, but denied that any of it had been spent improperly.


Nixon turned the speech against his political enemies, claiming that unlike the wives of so many Democratic politicians, ‘Republican wives’, like his wife Pat, did not own a fur coat, but only "a respectable Republican cloth coat." Nixon’s carefully-worded speech was probably best remembered for the last part where Nixon admitted accepting one political gift: a cocker spaniel dog that his 6-year-old daughter, Tricia, had named "Checkers." (This Nixon speech is now commonly referred to as the “Checkers'' speech.) Historians would write that his scheming speech was considered successful, as Eisenhower, with Nixon as V.P., won the election.

President Eisenhower, because of several health scares, including multiple heart attacks, had to formalize an agreement with Vice President Nixon on the powers and responsibilities of the Vice President, in the event of Presidential Disability. In doing this, Eisenhower was outlining what Nixon as V.P., could and couldn’t do. This situation brought about the adoption of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1967, which standardized the rules for all future Vice Presidents. (Read more about this at https://bit.ly/3oxx7fU)


After his eight years as Eisenhower’s V.P., Nixon ran for Governor of California. He lost to incumbent Gov. Brown by a substantial margin, and many political experts wrote that his political career was over. Nixon blamed the media for his loss and complained to the reporters present, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore..."

In 1960, he ran for President against John F. Kennedy, but lost in a very close election. Some historians believe he lost the election partly because, during the first-ever televised Presidential Election Debates, the majority of the public thought Kennedy looked younger, more handsome, and more energetic than Nixon on television. (For those who only heard the debates on radio, based on answers only, Nixon was thought to have fared better.)

In 1968, Nixon ran for President again, and won. As President, he worked toward withdrawing American soldiers from Vietnam, which, among the American People, was considered a terribly long and unpopular war. There were protests nearly every week somewhere in the U.S. This war cost more than 58,000 American lives and over one million Vietnamese lives. It wasn’t until 1973, during Nixon’s second term, that American troops did finally evacuate Vietnam, in a sad and dramatic way. By 1975, South Vietnam fell to Communist North Vietnam. (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-declares-vietnam-war-is-ending)

Nixon worked to improve U.S. relations with the U.S.S.R. (Russia). And he was the first American President, while in office, to visit China, where the United States formally recognized the “one-China” principle - that there is only one China, and that Taiwan is a part of China. Nixon wanted the public to credit him for the improved relations with China and Russia, but most historians would credit his National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, instead, as he conducted the negotiations on behalf of the President and the U.S., which aggravated Nixon.

Nixon made efforts to get inflation under control (preventing prices from going up), but had limited success.
His administration established the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.).
Nixon’s administration made little progress in the area of Civil Rights during his time in office.


Nixon created policies on national drug abuse and enforcement that changed over time. Nixon’s initial policy was formulated as he discovered that a large number of soldiers serving in Vietnam had developed addictions to heroin. This drug, and others, were widely available there. As the war wound down and the number of soldiers returning to the U.S. grew, the use of heroin and other narcotics in U.S. cities increased. Nixon’s first inclination (idea) was to provide care and treatment for the addicted veterans. The public largely supported this policy, because the addicted vets were seen as victims of the circumstances they had been forced into. But over several years, Nixon’s anti-drug efforts shifted from treatment toward punishment, with longer and harsher prison sentences for drug users and sellers. This policy change negatively affected more poor people and minorities living in cities, than those from wealthier families.

During the 1972 Presidential Campaign, Nixon’s administration was torn apart because of the so-called “Watergate” scandal. “Watergate” began as a break-in (robbery) at the offices of the Democratic National Committee located in the Watergate Hotel. The fancy Watergate Hotel was (and still is) only a few miles from the White House and the U.S. Capitol.


The break-in was traced to officials of the ‘Republican Committee to Re-elect the President' (Nixon), who were spying on the Democrats’ campaign efforts in the 1972 Presidential Election. When an investigation by reporters from the Washington Post newspaper revealed more and more details about this crime, Nixon and many of his staff tried to conceal the crimes and his involvement. A Congressional Investigation found that Nixon had knowledge of the crimes and that he had tried to cover them up. (Learn more about the Watergate Scandal in 7 minutes at: https://youtu.be/YOY_KlrMsUg)

Nixon famously set up a recording system which tape-recorded all conversations that occurred in the Oval Office (the President’s Office in the W.H.) or other places Nixon spoke. He intended the tapes to be saved as historical documents that scholars could study in the future. Leading up to the Congressional Watergate Hearings, it is believed that Nixon did not want his incriminating recorded conversations discovered and heard in court. This was because conversations about Watergate, and the problems it was causing for him, were on the tapes. Nixon had discussions about whether he and his aides should try and destroy (erase) the tapes. For this, Nixon was charged with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.

On August 8, 1974, faced with almost certain Impeachment by Congress and likely forced removal from the Presidency, Nixon announced that he would resign (quit) the next day. Nixon had recently appointed Gerald Ford to be his new Vice President, and had hatched a plan with Ford where he would resign, and Ford would become President, making Ford, as President, eligible to pardon him (forgive him of his crimes, avoid prosecution, and possibly years in prison).

Nixon became the only President ever to resign.  (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-resigns)


“Watergate” was considered a national disgrace to nearly everyone in the U.S. For a time, it pulled down the image of the Republican Party in voters’ eyes. Most historians believe it led to the Republicans losing the next Presidential Election (in 1976). Watergate also created greater public distrust in all of America's politicians.

Sources:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/slavery-in-the-presidents-neighborhood-faq
https://www.biography.com/us-president
https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents

-Complied by Henry Anker